DOCTOR WHO: DEEP BREATH - BUT NOT ONE OF FRESH AIR...

Copyright BBC TV

Apparently, back in the 1950s & '60s, DC COMICS produced their tales by coming up with what editors thought were intriguing or compelling cover images and then having their writers create stories around them.  Having just watched the latest episode of DOCTOR WHO, I'm more than ever convinced that STEVEN MOFFAT comes up with his storylines the same way.  "H'mm, a dinosaur in Victorian London would be a great visual..." I can imagine him saying - and then sitting down and working a story around that and other 'striking' images.

So what's new in the world of Doctor Who?  What difference does PETER CAPALDI make in the role?  Not much to both questions it has to be said.  The plot was still a pile of outrageous sci-fi sh*te written for geeks by a geek, and the Doctor still talks to himself far too much, and veers between looking mean and moody and being a stand-up comedian who dispenses humorous one-liners right, left and centre.  And there was the now obligatory same sex (but different species) kiss (masquerading under 'first aid'), in the usual 'gay mafia' strategy to brainwash us into accepting such scenes as a matter of course on all TV shows.

The first four episodes of the programme, broadcast in 1963, used the sci-fi concept of the TARDIS merely to cast the four main protagonists in an adventure set in the past.  However, everything else about the situation was straightforward, realistic drama.  I've said before that I'd love to see the Doc materialise in, let's say Edwardian London, and solve a murder mystery that has absolutely no sci-fi connotations whatsoever.

However, I'm aware that Peter Capaldi's Doctor was still finding his feet in this introductory episode.  Let's hope we can now look forward to the enigmatic 'stranger with a hint of danger' that the Doctor should be, as opposed to the babbling idiot we've had to suffer in far too many previous episodes in the past.

Agree?  Disagree?  Make your feelings known. 

BABE Of The DAY - KELLY BROOK...

One look at KELLY BROOK makes

me realise just how unlikely it is that I'll ever

have a girlfriend even half as beautiful as she is.

Perhaps I should dig that hole in the ground right

now and jump in - after all, why torture myself

with forlorn hopes of things that'll never, ever

 be in a month of Sundays?  (Sob!) 

DOCTOR WHO IN TV COMIC ANNUAL...

Copyright BBC TV

The new DOCTOR WHO series starts tonight, so as a starter course, here's a four page strip drawn by PATRICK WILLIAMS from the TV COMIC Annual for 1968.  That conveyor belt must have been moving at a speed of an inch an hour for the Mammoths to rescue him in time, and the Doc remains coldly unmoved when one apparently comes a cropper at the hands of the TRODS, who were obvious stand-ins for the DALEKS.  He was also surely a little cavalier in luring them into danger in the first place, which is somewhat at odds with his TV persona of the time.  Anyway - enjoy!

ZOWIE! TOPPS 1966 BATMAN CARDS - PART THREE...

Images copyright DC COMICS & TOPPS

Another half-dozen images from the 1966 BATMAN cards by TOPPS (1989 reissue set).  Paste your peepers onto these paper piccies, and you'll be transported to the mid-'60s faster than you can say "Atomic batteries to power!"

Like to see more?  Then let me know, Bat-fans.